Galen Rowell

Galen Rowell: A Retrospective

by Editors of Sierra Club Books

Publisher's Description

Galen Rowell was the archetypal adventure photographer, his iconic images published in leading magazines and scores of books, exhibited in major galleries, and cherished by fans ranging from the Dalai Lama to news anchor Tom Brokaw. When he and his wife and business partner, Barbara Cushman Rowell, perished in a small plane crash in 2002, he had just completed a landmark assignment for National Geographic and had begun making stunning new images of his favorite old haunts in the Sierra Nevada.

Fortunately for us, his productivity was immense and his photographs meticulously archived, making possible this first and only comprehensive retrospective of his work. Rowell himself had no time for looking back: his creative energies went into books that combine his images and writings on a wide range of subjects including, climbing and expeditionary feats; exotic cultures; endangered wildlife and places; celebrations of light, color, and rare natural phenomena; and visionary interpretations of landscape.

All are magnificently on view in this retrospective, which includes more than 175 images representing all phases and dimensions of Rowell's singular career, chosen by the editors with whom he worked most closely, overseen by his family and studio colleagues, and reproduced to the highest standards of lithography from digital masters of his 35mm frames. Complementing and illuminating the pictures are essays and commentaries by Rowell's friends and associates from the worlds of mountaineering, conservation, photography, and publishing, along with an in-depth biographical introduction by Robert Roper and an appreciation of his work by photography critic Andy Grundberg. With additional essays by John Ackerly, Conrad Anker, Jon Beckmann, Justin Black, Dean Stevens, Frans Lanting, Doug Robinson, and George B. Schaller.